Fever, pain, aches… The symptoms of the flu are classic, but the epidemic continues to affect France, where all regions are placed on epidemic alert. However, there are strong disparities between departments, as you can see on the map below, which allows you to visualize the share of flu cases in hospital emergency room visits.
The East and the Paris region more affected
Nationally, flu cases represent on average nearly 4% of emergency room visits. But departments, mainly in the East and in Île-de-France, are more affected. Thus, Val-de-Marne is the most affected with flu cases which represent 7.7% of emergency room visits. Corsica-du-Sud (7.6%), Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (7.4%) and Var (7.1%) are also among the most affected departments.
Conversely, Creuse, with flu cases which represent only 0.96% of emergency room visits, is the least affected department. Mayenne, Dordogne, Cher and Gard are little affected with less than 2%.
A national decline
But over a week, the evolution of this indicator is positive, as you can see on the map below. The share of flu cases in emergencies fell on average by 2.1% nationally, with particularly marked declines in Creuse (-73%), Meuse (-39%) and Dordogne (-38). %).
On the other hand, the indicator is soaring in Territoire-de-Belfort (+61%), Lot-et-Garonne (+50%), Allier (+39%) and even Eure-et-Loir ( +34%). However, in its weekly bulletin, Santé Publique France notes the “maintaining high influenza activity” and “hospital activity still high”.
The fear of an “upward recovery among adults in the coming weeks”
We note a drop in indicators among those aged 15 and over, but an increase among those under 15. “Current intense influenza activity among children could lead to an upward resumption of hospital indicators among adults in the coming weeks,” notes Santé Publique France, which may explain the decision of health authorities to extend the campaign by one month. vaccination, until the end of February.
-Enough to fear an outbreak in the number of deaths, while the share of deaths with a mention of flu among electronically certified deaths remains higher than during previous epidemics, at 6.8% the week of January 13 to 19 compared to 7 .3% the previous week.
The departments with the most serious cases
A seriousness of cases which is illustrated by the proportion of patients who go to the emergency room for flu and who are hospitalized. They are almost 58% in Tarn-et-Garonne, 38% in Dordogne or even 33% in Manche. Conversely, the center of the country and particularly Île-de-France, are less affected with a share of less than 10%.
While the vaccination campaign has been extended by one month, until the end of February, Santé Publique France deplores low vaccination coverage. As of November 30, vaccination coverage among all people targeted for vaccination was 35.2%: 41.0% among people aged 65 and over, and 19.0% among those aged under 65. years at risk of severe flu.
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This is a lower coverage rate than last year when it stood at 38.0% among all people targeted by vaccination, with 42.8% among people aged 65 and over, and 20. 9% among those aged under 65 at risk of severe flu.
